


in texas

by poisonrationalitie



Category: 19 Kids and Counting RPF, Counting On (TV) RPF
Genre: Camping, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:06:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27156349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisonrationalitie/pseuds/poisonrationalitie
Summary: Johannah goes to family camp and hangs out with the Spiveys - and, unfortunately, her little sisters.
Relationships: Claire Spivey/Justin Duggar
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	in texas

**Author's Note:**

> this is just a lil thing i couldn’t get out of my head after seeing the pictures from the ALERT family camp this year. i just want the girls to get to do normal teenagery things!

Okay, maybe it’s not super-duper proper freedom, but it feels like something. The sun is shining and her parents have toddled off to lecture somebody about the ungodliness of closed-in shoes and the girls have been left behind with Justin and Claire and Mrs. Spivey, who apart from the whole fan thing, is actually pretty nice.

“I’m just so excited,” Mrs. Spivey beams, patting her on the shoulder, “to be part of your family. I’m so excited for my Claire and your Justin. They look so happy together, don’t you think?” And for all Hannie teases her elder brother, he _does_ look happy. She doesn’t think he’s smiled so much in his life.

“Yeah,” she says. “It’ll be great. Thanks for having us, Mrs. Spivey. And for having Justin.”

“Oh, don’t you mention it,” she says, tossing her hand. “Justin’s a huge help. And we love having you girls around!”

Hannie, Jenni, and Jordyn follow Paige into the Spivey’s RV, and she leans down and retrieves four icy poles from a large chest freezer.

“Red, please,” Hannie says. Paige gives her the raspberry flavour and a pair of scissors, but Hannie’s already ripped the top bit of plastic off. She pops the icy treat into her mouth and sucks. It’s a relief from the stifling Texas heat, which seems to be a total stranger to any notion of fall. Jordyn cuts the top off her icy pole roughly, but Jenni’s more careful, sticking her thumb through the wrong hole at first. She grimaces. She’s always like that. Hannie rolls her eyes. Okay, it’s really not super-duper proper freedom, given her little sisters are following her around, but at least Paige isn’t related to her, not even by marriage, not yet.

They leave the RV and collapse into camp chairs. Hannie falls into a green one, and browned leaves crunch beneath her. Jordyn chatters away, half of it inane, and Hannie makes sure to do her sisterly duty and tease her a little bit.

“Right,” she says, pulling the icy pole away from her mouth. “Remind me, _who_ put in the extra baking soda?” Paige throws her head back, laughing, and Jordyn crosses her arms.

“Not _me,”_ she protests. “That was Jenni!” Hannie freezes. Jordyn’s open season, but Jenni’s…different. Maybe it’s because Jill’s marched off to go hang out with homosexuals and Catholics and homosexual Catholics or whatever, but she can’t take a joke and she spends more time in the prayer closet than the rest of the family put together. Jenni isn’t smiling – she stares at Jordyn.

“It wasn’t,” she says flatly. Her face is already all blotchy. Hannie can practically _feel_ a Jenni cry-fest coming on, the same way dogs sense storms or something.

“It’s fine,” she says. “It’s whatever. Paige, is it true that Justin and Claire – _you know?”_

“It wasn’t me,” Jenni repeats stubbornly. “You’re lying.”

“It was too!” Jordyn says. “Even Josie saw you, go and ask her-” For once, for _once,_ Hannie isn’t with her parents and all the adults are preoccupied and she can pretend she’s hanging out with a friend, even though she really doesn’t know Paige that well, and her sisters have to ruin it by – just – _ugh._

”Stop it,” Hannie barks. “It doesn’t matter. I wanna hear about Justin.” Jenni turns to her, eyes rimmed red, her hands gripping the canvas arms of the dirty camp chair tightly.

“She’s lying.”

“Am not!” Hannie presses her palms against her eyes. One day. One hour. Can’t she get _one hour_ away from her sisters for _once_ in her life? When she uncovers her eyes, she sees Paige’s raised eyebrows and sidewards smile. She’s got three younger siblings too, but two of them are boys, and for whatever reason, they seem to have the ability to go off and hang out with people they don’t share a bedroom (or bed) with. Paige can just suck on an icy pole and throw her feet over one arm of the chair and not worry about people seeing up her skirt and just… _be._

Then again, she doesn’t have a TV show.

“Just drop it,” Hannie snaps. Jordyn sticks out her tongue. Jenni adopts the expression of a wounded animal. She does her best to ignore them, and silently prays that Jenni won’t run off to James or ring up Joy later on. “So, Paige – did they?”

Paige doesn’t know, and they spend a lazy half hour debating the possibility of lip-cheek action. Their icy poles shrink and turn to coloured slush at the bottom of plastic packets, which they discard into a grey bag on their march over to the block of bathrooms. They side-step the long line and head for the mirrors, examining their dyed tongues. Jordyn’s has a sick yellowish tinge from the pineapple, and Jenni’s is a dour brown. Paige sticks out an unnaturally blue tongue like one of those weird lizards, and flicks it like a snake.

“That’s so weird,” Hannie laughs. Paige flicks it again, and Hannie shakes her head. Jordyn flashes her yellow tongue.

“I’m an alien!” she shouts.

“Where’d you hear that? Don’t be dumb,” Hannie snorts. Aliens are firmly made-up, like the whole monkeys-having-human-babies thing. Jordyn rolls her eyes back, and Paige flicks her tongue. An old woman sends them a dirty look as she exits her stall and turns on the tap by Jordyn. A little girl shuffles in. Paige leans in close, until Hannie’s whole sight is taken up by her. Her lips twitch. Paige lunges, sticking out her tongue, almost touching her, and Hannie jumps back. She slams into Jenni, who sucks in her breath. Jordyn bursts into laughter.

“You guys are the worst!” Hannie shouts, batting a hand at Paige, who too is consumed by laughter. Jordyn pushes past them and runs out of the bathrooms, past the line of people, giggling furiously. Hannie takes off after her, feet pounding the tiles and then the concrete outside and then the grass. A breeze pricks up and catches her hair, and she can hear Paige behind her, panting.

“Jordyn!” she yells. Jordyn looks over her shoulder, far ahead, and waves.

“Wait!” Jenni calls from behind. “Wait!” Hannie takes off anyways – Jenni will catch up, probably – dead set on reaching Jordyn. They spirit past campsites, and one of the Bates girls waves at them – she doesn’t stop to tell which one. Someone shouts.

“Gosh,” Hannie swears, skidding to a stop, arms waving wildly. Ahead, Jordyn is on her butt, looking up at a couple holding hands. Hannie grimaces, and glances back. Paige is only a few paces behind her, but Jenni is still sprinting, holding the skirt of her dress up a little to stop it tangling around her ankles. Her own fault, Hannie thinks. Jenni steadfastly refuses to go shopping and gets stuck with dresses that make her look about Meredith’s age, and yet has the nerve to complain. It’s a right pain.

She braces to do damage control and heads towards where Jordyn sits, chest tight. She can half-hear the lecture she’ll get for letting her sisters ‘run wild’, and the long days locked in the RV with Josie and Mack for company spring to mind fully-formed. A knot squeezes her innards and climbs into her throat in an attempt to choke her.

“C’mon now, get up,” Justin says, offering his free hand to Jordyn. Hannie’s whole being relaxes. _Oh, praise God._ Jordyn gets to her feet, grinning at her older buddy. And then it all hits her; _Justin and Claire_ are the couple walking around holding hands. In _public._ And if they’re doing that, then –

She and Paige exchange a wide-eyed look. Then they approach their siblings.

Justin untangles his fingers from Claire’s at the last second.

“Howdy,” he says, cheeks pink. Hannie presses her lips together. _Justin. Huh._ This is good. This is very, very good material. Texas really is a land of opportunity.

“Howdy,” she says, eyes flickering from him to Claire. She wrings her hands together, grimacing in a way reminiscent of Jenni. “Sorry about Jordyn.”

“They were chasing me,” Jordyn says. “And look, my tongue’s _yellow,_ isn’t that weird? Imagine if everyone’s tongues were a different colour, like green, or blue, or-”

“Mine’s blue,” Paige adds helpfully.

“It’s all alright,” Justin says, and scratches his ear. Hannie’s eyebrows quirk upwards. _Oho._ She folds her arms across her chest, catching Paige’s eye. Paige smirks.

“Having a good day?” Hannie asks, doing her best to sound innocent. Justin glances at Claire.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah. It’s good,” he says. Hannie moulds her face into one of concern.

“Is Jackson chaperoning you today?” she asks. Justin’s eyes flash.

“Yeah, yeah, he was, but, erm-” he and Claire look at each other again.

“Well, he and Robbie were just-”

“-They thought they’d-”

“-And that was really nice-”

“-And…yeah,” Justin finishes lamely. Hannie can’t help but grin.

“Hi,” Jenni says, out of nowhere, appearing at Hannie’s elbow. Hannie sighs. Every bit of good comes with a catch, doesn’t it?

“Hey,” Justin says, and then hesitates. “Look, Hannie-”

“We’re happy to take over for them,” she says, exchanging grins with Paige. Jordyn’s eyes light up, and Hannie gives her a little nod. Jordyn claps her hands together.

“Wouldn’t that be cool? I think it’d be cool. You don’t mind, do you, Claire?”

“Oh, me? I – not at all-”

“Great,” Hannie says. “We’d just hate for you to be unchaperoned and be _tempted,_ you know?”

“We hate temptation,” Paige agrees. “And we love you. We don’t want you to be tempted to, maybe-”

“-Hold hands?” Jordyn suggests. Claire laughs suddenly, weak and high-pitched. Justin rubs his brow.

“Well, that’s real nice of you-”

“Or even kiss on the cheek,” Hannie butts in, shaking her head disapprovingly. Jordyn bursts into giggles; Jenni inhales sharply. “It’s so, _so_ important to stay chaste. I mean, if that happened, because we weren’t chaperoning – I’d feel terrible-”

“I’d never forgive myself,” Paige deadpans. Jenni bristles. Hannie bites down on her lip, shoulders quivering. Justin glows a brilliant shade of tomato, right up to the tips of his ears.

“Well, er, thanks,” he says, after a moment. Hannie smirks.

“You’re very welcome,” she assures him. This is going to be _good._


End file.
